The Delaware Festival of Words is a free, annual event for middle school and high school students, teachers, and librarians. Now in its 18th year, the event was developed to encourage a love of reading and writing by introducing young adults to diverse authors and ideas. Workshops at the festival focus on interaction with authors, discussion of featured books, activities to develop writing and poetry skills,and the opportunity for students to express themselves.​

Join us for the 2018 Festival of Words​Thursday, February 15, 20184-8:30 p.m.Thomas McKean High School301 McKennan's Church Road, Wilmington DE 19807

2018 FEATURED AUTHORS:

Nic Stone was born and raised in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia. After graduating from Spelman College, she worked extensively in teen mentoring. Growing up with a wide range of cultures, religions, and backgrounds, Stone brings those diverse voices and stories to her work. She lived in Israel for a few years before returning to the U.S. to pen her debut novel, Dear Martin. She currently lives in Atlanta with her husband and two sons.

Jeff Zentner is the author of the William C. Morris Award winning and Carnegie Medal longlisted book The Serpent King (2016) as well as Goodbye Days (2017). He lives in Nashville, Tennessee. He came to writing through music, starting his creative life as a guitarist and eventually becoming a songwriter. He’s released five albums and appeared on recordings with Iggy Pop, Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Thurston Moore, Debbie Harry, Mark Lanegan, and Lydia Lunch, among others.

I. W. Gregorio is a practicing surgeon by day, masked avenging YA writer by night. After getting her MD, she did her residency at Stanford, where she met the intersex patient who inspired her debut novel, None of the Above, which was finalist for the 2016 Lambda Literary Award, a Spring 2015 Publishers Weekly Flying Start, and is under development as a TV series by Davis Entertainment and Stephen Chbosky. Ilene is proud to be a board member of interACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth. She also is a founding member of We Need Diverse Books™.

Erin Entrada Kelly lives in the Philadelphia area. She is the author of Blackbird Fly (2015), The Land of Forgotten Girls (2016), Hello, Universe (2017), and You Go First (coming in April 2018). Her books have earned numerous honors and awards, including Best Book of 2015 from the Center for Multicultural Literature (Blackbird Fly), Parents Choice Foundation Gold Award for Fiction (The Land of Forgotten Girls) and starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus, School Library Journal, Booklist, and Shelf Awareness (Hello, Universe).

Kathryn Holmes grew up in Maryville, Tennessee, where she was an avid reader and an aspiring writer from an early age. She now lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and daughter and piles upon piles of books. A graduate of The New School’s MFA in Creative Writing program, Kathryn works as a freelance dance journalist, among other writing gigs. She is the author of The Distance Between Lost and Found and How It Feels to Fly.

Sharon Huss Roat is the author of Between the Notes and How to Disappear. She grew up in Lancaster County, Pa., and now lives in Delaware. She has two amazing children whose talents in music and dance bring great joy to her life. Sharon worked in public relations for more than 20 years before deciding what she really wanted to be when she grew up. She recently started playing her clarinet again (it's been a long time), grows a massive vegetable garden each year, and also serves as co-chair of the Festival of Words.

Lance Rubin is the author of Denton Little's Deathdate (winner of the 2016 ILA Young Adult book award) and Denton Little's Still Not Dead. He's worked as an actor and written sketch comedy, including successful runs of The Lance and Ray Show at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. He's also co-written a new musical called Broadway Bounty Hunter. Lance lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two sons.

Dianne K. Salerni is the author of the Eighth Day fantasy series, described by Kirkus as “an exciting blend of Arthurian legend and organized crime.” The first book in the series has been on state lists in Maine, Florida, Georgia, and Virginia. Dianne has also published two YA historical novels. The Caged Graves is a Junior Library Guild Selection and We Hear the Dead was the inspiration for a short film, The Spirit Game, which premiered at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

Ronald L. Smith is the author of Hoodoo, a southern gothic novel for young readers. It won the 2016 Coretta Scott King/ John Steptoe New Talent AuthorAward, and also received the 2016 ILA Award for Intermediate Fiction from The International Literacy Association. The Mesmerist, a supernatural Victorian fantasy, was released in 2017. In January, 2018 Marvel Press will release Black Panther, The Young Prince, a middle-grade take on the Marvel superhero.

Maggie Thrash grew up in the South. She is the author of the graphic memoir Honor Girl (a Los Angeles Times Book Prize nominee), and two YA mysteries--Strange Truth and Strange Lies—inspired by her experiences at an exclusive prep school in Atlanta, where everyone had secrets.

Need more information? E-mail: festivalofwordsde@gmail.com

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